Arknights: Should You Pull? Standard Banner: Suzuran and Blaze

The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:

Featured Operators:

Rarity	Operator
6★	Suzuran - Slower Supporter Blaze - AoE Guard
5★	Swire - Support Guard Sora - Aura Supporter Cliffheart - Puller Specialist

• Based on previous patterns, it is likely but not 100% certain that the Operators for purchase in the Distinction store will be Blaze and Sora
• 6★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 6★
• 5★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 5★

Maybe, depending on how much you need the two 6* units.

Suzuran is a support-heavy Slower Supporter (in contrast to Angelina, the offensive Slower Supporter) and Blaze is still a pretty strong AoE Guard with a Skill that permanently increases her attack range. Both of these archetypes are widely useful, so if you don’t have a strong unit for one of them, this might be the place to get them.

The problem with this banner is the mediocre set of 5* units. Sora can be very potent in high-end content due to her AoE ATK buff, but she can’t do much on her own. Meanwhile, Cliffheart is more or less comparable to 4* Puller Rope, and Swire is notoriously undertuned.

If nothing else, Doctors might want to consider doing Headhunt x1 on this banner until they pull a 5★ or higher Operator, since one is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls.

Slower Supporter

+ Talent charges [Per Second] SP for other Supporter allies

+ E2 Talent inflicts Fragile (take increased damage) on enemies who are in her attack range and inflicted with Slow

+ S2 is a great multi-target Slowing ability and also does decent DPS

+ S3 covers a huge range, Slows all enemies within it (triggering E2 Talent), increases the strength of her Fragile debuff, AND constantly heals all allies within range

- Most of her power comes from amplifying the DPS of her allies, but she can’t actually do this until she gets E2’d (Fragile debuff is on her E2 Talent and her S3); before E2, all she really does is Slow enemies

- S1 triggers automatically and S2 has a relatively long charge time (though her own Talent shortens it)

AoE Guard

+ Very consistent damage

+ Once-per-battle “survive anything” card with her Emergency Defibrillator Talent

+ A melee Operator who can extend her attack range permanently with S2

+ S3 gives her an option for AoE burst damage

- Needs to be E2-promoted for Block-3 in order to unleash her full power

Support Guard

+ Longer attack range than most Guards, allowing her to attack from behind other Operators (but she can’t hit aerial enemies, so watch out for that)

+ Buffs ATK of all nearby melee Operators; soups up her buffs using her Skills

+ Can Block-2, attacks quickly, and has a low DP cost compared to other Guards

= High DEF but low HP

- Without heavy investment, her Skills have very short durations

- S2 has the [Attacking Enemy] SP charge type and a ridiculously high SP cost to go with it, so it takes a VERY long time to charge

- Her Talent only buffs melee units, but placing several melee units within her range can be difficult on some maps

Aura Supporter

+ Trait passively heals allies within her attack range, including Summons and Enmity Units that cannot typically be healed by other units.

+ Very low DP cost

+ S1 puts enemies to Sleep (cannot act but also cannot take damage), giving you time to charge Skills and run down redeploy timers

+ S2 is an amazing AoE ATK buff—perfect for Operators with low base ATK or high multiplicative ATK modifiers (i.e., Exusiai)

- Has no damage potential whatsoever; relies on her allies to affect the field 

- Limited attack range makes it difficult to deploy her on some maps

Pull Specialist

+ Pulls enemies, resulting in instant death, movement pattern changes, etc.

+ Skills can do ranged Arts/ True damage, so she hits harder than you might expect

+ Can be deployed on ground or ranged grids

- More expensive to level than lower-rarity Pull Specialists, but not significantly better in most situations to compensate

- Given to new players for free and not a high priority for needing Potential boosts

Suzuran is the ultimate damage amplifier for her allies. She Slows enemies to keep them in attack range for a longer period of time, and while they’re Slowed she afflicts them with the Fragile debuff, increasing the amount of damage her allies deal. The combination is simple but effective, especially during her S3, which increases Suzuran’s range as well as the effect of her Fragile debuff. It doesn’t matter if you’re facing a massive wave or a single mighty boss: once they hit the gravity well of Suzuran’s S3, they move like molasses and tear like tissue paper.

The problem with a “damage amplifier” unit is that they need someone else to provide damage for them to amplify. Suzuran’s direct damage potential is negligible, especially in comparison to a powerhouse like Angelina. If the rest of your team doesn’t have decent damage to bring to the table, Suzuran can’t do much to help them. Furthermore, as a young and inexperienced Operator, Suzuran needs a lot of training. Her big selling point is the combination of Slow and Fragile, but she can’t actually cause Fragile until she’s promoted to E2. That’s a long time to wait for an Operator to do their job.

I recommend pulling for Suzuran, especially if you don’t have Angelina.

Blaze is the only 6* AoE Guard currently in Arknights, and she’s debatably the strongest example of what is already a strong archetype. She hits multiple targets at a time, her DPS is terrific, she can permanently increase her attack range, and she comes with a free “Get Out of Dying Once” card up her sleeve.

For a while, Blaze dominated the Arknights meta, but the arrival of Surtr reduced Blaze’s allure a little (as it did for so many other Operators). Blaze deals a lot of AoE damage and survives lethal damage; Surtr does the same thing, but she does Arts damage instead of physical, she does it over a wider range, and she survives death longer.

Don’t count this fiery Feline out of the running just yet though. Having Block-3, a permanent S2, and no ramping HP loss makes Blaze more of a “set it and forget it” unit than Surtr, able to hold a lane more or less single-handedly (sometimes two lanes if they’re close enough together!). After all, somebody’s gotta hold the lane after Surtr inevitably dies, and Blaze is a perfect unit for the task.

I recommend pulling for Blaze, especially if you don’t have Surtr.

Swire is both fierce and fabulous, but unfortunately, she’s also a little flawed. Her Talent offers an ATK buff to nearby melee allies and her Skills increase the power of this Talent quite nicely, but the buff isn’t usually enough to compensate for Swire’s own low DPS. In cases where you really need to maximize the melee damage in a particular area, Swire can be useful, and her long attack range allows her to contribute from behind the units she wants to buff. However, in most cases, you’d probably be better off fielding another DPS unit instead of relying on Swire’s buffs.

I don’t recommend pulling for Swire.

Sora is an idol singer, so it’s to be expected that she’s no great shakes at combat. Instead, she supports her allies with the power of her singing voice! She passively regenerates HP to nearby allies rather than attacking, and her S2 grants a percentage of her ATK to allies within her range, amping up their damage output to 11 for the duration.

The damage spike that Sora’s S2 grants the rest of your team is enormous. However, the Skill’s duration is pretty short until it’s at M3, and even then it’s shorter than you’d prefer. Because Sora can’t Block or attack enemies herself, the rest of your team needs to be able to handle enemies in between her S2 activations without her help. It can be a bit tricky to time at first, but once you get the rhythm down, Sora’s song will sweep the critics off their feet.

If you’re a gamer who likes to min-max, then Sora is well worth pulling for. If you’re a more casual kind of player, I don’t recommend pulling for Sora, but she may still be worth investing in if you pull her.

Cliffheart is a Pull Specialist, able to grab her enemies and yank them into deadly pits or other obstacles for one-hit-K.O.s. On any stage where such deadly pits exist, Cliffheart can be a powerful ally. Unfortunately, on stages without these pits, Cliffheart becomes much less useful, and in most cases the lower-rarity Rope can perform Pulling duties just as well as Cliffheart can.

I don’t recommend pulling for Cliffheart.